


do you play quidditch? you look like a keeper to me

by sunset_swerved



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety Attacks, Bad Explanations but you Get the Point, Blow Jobs, Bobby and Trevor are different people, Fake Dating, Fraternities & Sororities, Gay Panic, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Muggle Quidditch, NSFW, Slow Burn, Smut, gratuitous use of the word fuck, ish, no beta we die by hotdogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:21:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29257377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_swerved/pseuds/sunset_swerved
Summary: But what being a sophomore didn’t tell Alex was why he was currently sitting on the grass and watching the absolute most beautiful man on the face of the planet explain the rules of Muggle Quidditch.Yes. The sport from Harry Potter. The one with brooms and flying and, apparently, tackling?Or maybe that’s just the Muggle version. He wasn’t entirely sure.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 92





	do you play quidditch? you look like a keeper to me

**Author's Note:**

> I woke up the other day with a thought. “Ah, what does this fandom not have and that nobody has asked for? A Willex Muggle Quidditch AU.” So I wrote it. All 17,000 words of it. I played Quidditch for a year in like 2013 so the rules are definitely different now and everything is vague because I honestly don’t remember anything about it other than the time I almost got a concussion so if you’re looking for an explanation of how to play the game, I’m sorry. Also, thanks HGC discord for Charlie she’s great.

Being a sophomore meant that Alex  _ should _ have a handle on things. He wasn’t new to the campus. He knew, for the most part, which buildings were which and what kind of classes were in them, he knew the best time to hit up the caf if you didn’t have a meal plan to get in for free, and what time the drum line practiced so he could sneak into their practice rooms and wail on a drum kit when he was stressing too much about finals.

But what being a sophomore  _ didn’t  _ tell Alex was why he was currently sitting on the grass and watching  _ the absolute most beautiful man on the face of the planet _ explain the rules of Muggle Quidditch.

Yes. The sport from Harry Potter. The one with brooms and  _ flying _ and, apparently, tackling?

Or maybe that’s just the Muggle version. He wasn’t entirely sure.

Luke would occasionally reach out and nudge him, a smirk and a low laugh that he’d let out under his breath and Alex would resist the urge to shove him back.

Of course he had picked up the fact that Alex was attracted to Willie.  _ Of course. _

“So, uh, yeah,” Willie, otherwise known as the most attractive man on the planet, said. “Does anyone have any questions or do we wanna toss the Quaffle around?”

Toss the  _ what _ around?

Before he could even think of a response, everyone who had come out for the informational meeting immediately jumped up and ran out into the on campus park, ready to play.

“What about it Hotdog?”

Alex startled and turned to Willie who was standing and smiling at him, all ease and self-confidence and his  _ fucking _ tie-dye crop top that let Alex catch occasional glimpses of the dimple next to his ribs and the beginning of the V shape that led to his-.

“Yeah let’s go,” the blonde finally said, pushing down his thoughts and trying to not make it seem like he didn’t understand a word of what was explained and was, instead, staring at the man in front of him and trying to figure out how to sneak him into his room at the frat house.

Willie grinned, broadly, his smile only exaggerated by his perfect cheek bones and Alex tried not to choke on his own spit as the older man held his hand out to help him off the ground.

* * *

Alex never really had much more than a passing thought about Harry Potter. Growing up, his parents were super religious and extremely conservative about what media they allowed Alex and his younger sister to enjoy and Harry Potter, with the magic and, later, the queer characters, was definitely  _ not _ on that approved list.

  
That’s not to say that Alex never watched them. He just did it when he wasn’t at home. Sleepovers with his friends, sneaking into a different theatre when he had bought tickets to a more appropriate movie, that one time it was playing in the background while he was sucking the dick of the captain of the soccer team at a party - so yeah, he had watched it. 

But he was never one of  _ those _ fans.

His two best friends, on the other hand, were.

Alex, Luke, and Reggie had been attached at the hip since Billy Cornweld had pushed Reggie off the swings in the second grade and kicked sand in Alex’s eyes while Luke tried to throw a punch, missed, and instead punched the wooden support beam of the swing set and broke his hand in the process. Their parents referred to them as The Disasters, which wasn’t too far off the mark.

Their friendship continued through all of elementary, middle, and high school and, to Alex’s parents’ discernment, even to the same college where all three boys were accepted. 

(They even tried to make it into the same fraternity, but  _ that _ was a different story altogether.

There was fire and an ambulance involved. Alex tried not to think about it.)

The three of them were as thick as thieves, still, even though Alex lived in the frat house that only he ended up pledging (again, a very different story), Reggie practically lived in the musical theatre building even when he wasn’t actively involved in a show, and Luke worked three jobs in order to stay in college and do whatever he wanted without his parents getting a say, including switching his major every month.

And they also, apparently, played Quidditch together.

* * *

Despite the fact that Alex liked to blame the idea of the three of them joining the Quidditch team on Luke, it was actually his fault.

Well, kind of.

Okay, yeah. It was his.

It wasn’t  _ his _ fault that, at a pre-Rush barbecue event for his fraternity that he was trying so  _ very _ hard to stay awake during because even though classes had  _ just _ started he already felt like he was behind in his music history course, the hottest guy he had ever seen was putting up flyers around campus while riding on his skateboard and smashed into him, knocking the both of them to the ground and smearing Alex’s newly acquired hotdog from the Phi Delt guy’s tent (and also the only thing he had eaten all day) all over his hoodie.

“Oh man, you dinged my board!” Hottest man in the world, also, apparently, the most dangerous, said as he pushed himself off of Alex who was still in shock at having been shoved to the ground.

“I dinged your board?” Alex asked, incredulously. “Dude, you ran me over!”

He was trying so  _ very _ hard to not notice that the guy was still in the the V of his legs as he inspected his board. Alex could barely see the guy’s face through his curtain of thick hair, but he  _ could _ see the cheekbones that could cut glass and that was just as bad.

Eventually (which was really only a few seconds but Alex had  _ just _ gotten back to campus from being at home where his parents  _ didn’t _ know he was a raging homosexual and, as such, he hadn’t been laid in actual  _ months _ so this? Felt like a lifetime) the guy realized where he was (and where they were because they were, in fact, on the main quad of campus and people were starting to  _ stare _ ) and jumped up.

Alex tried not to mope.

“Oh my God I am so so sorry,” the guy said. He reached out a hand and Alex grabbed it, hoping that his weren’t clammy and also trying not to think that  _ their hands fit perfectly together ohmygod _ , and pulled himself up.

His hotdog was a lost cause. As was his hoodie.

“It’s… well, it’s not okay but it was probably a sign that that hotdog was, I don’t know, poisoned or something,” Alex finally said, once the two of them were standing.

The hottest man in the world looked up ( _ up!! At him!! _ ) and sheepishly grinned. “Yeah, again bro, I’m sorry. I totally didn’t mean to pancake you.” He let out a little giggle at the end and Alex tried not to swoon.

Tried. Really hard.

“So, uh,” Alex started, trying to figure out how to keep the guy talking to him and potentially get him into his bed. “Are you… thinking about rushing? Or something?”

The hot guy looked at him, confused, before looking around and seeing the large amount of people who were similarly dressed and the giant, wooden cut outs of Greek letters that were spaced throughout the quad and laughed.

“Fuck no,” he said, his eyes squinting as he laughed. “Nah, I’m too old for that shit. You?”

Alex awkwardly laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, no. Been there, done that. I’m on the, uh, other side.”

Hot guy rose a (perfectly sculpted) brow and  _ looked him up and down _ . “Yeah?”

Alex sighed. “It’s… a long story.”  _ Which hopefully they could talk about over coffee or dinner or something just as long as the two of them could hang out forever. _ “Well, if you’re not here to rush, what  _ are  _ you here for?”

The hot guy shook himself (out of _checking him_ _out_ which he was _still doing_ ) and a bright smile stretched across his face and Alex thought that he had fallen in love, for a moment. “Oh! I’m putting up flyers for an informational meeting of a new club I’m trying to get started on campus!” He said. He grinned and held his hand out, “I’m Willie, by the way.”

Alex reached out and shook his hand and, once again, realized that their hands fit perfectly together. “It’s… nice to meet you, even if you did try to kill me. I’m Alex.” He was still holding the hot guy-  _ Willie’s _ hand until the other man smirked and Alex dropped it, quickly.

How embarrassing.

“What kind of club?” He asked, partly curious and partly trying to keep him talking. Alex just hoped that Willie wouldn’t notice his voice crack.

“Have you ever heard of Muggle Quidditch?” Willie asked.

“Like the sport from Harry Potter? With the broomsticks?” Alex asked.

Willie nodded. “Yeah! There’s actually a Muggle version that a bunch of college campuses are starting to adopt and like, forming a little Quidditch League and everything, and my friends and I are trying to start one here.”

“Do you have the ability to grant people the power of flight?” Alex asked. “Because, and it’s been awhile, but I definitely remember that the sport was played on broomsticks. You know, in the air.”

Willie laughed and Alex thought it was the perfect sound but didn’t quite realize if it was because he was touch-starved and horny or that he was in love with the man and he was  _ very much _ not thinking about the answer to that question  _ right  _ now thank you, before answering, “Nah man. No flight involved. It’s played on the ground, with broomsticks between your legs? But I met this man once, a magician - really fucking weird guy who actually  _ could _ fly and-“

“Doesn’t that get awkward?” Alex asked, interrupting. “I mean, with, you know..”

“Dicks?” Willie asked, laughing. “Kinda. But you gotta just, put it to one side and then you’re good to go.”

Alex’s mouth went dry as the word  _ dick _ came out of the other man’s mouth and he used every ounce of self-restraint he possessed and avoided looking at his crotch.

“Are you… interested?” Willie asked, cautiously. “It’s just… we need at least thirteen people interested before we can bring it to the Dean and, we already have a faculty head because Professor Harrison, you know, the music one? Is an actual Queen and agreed as long as she didn’t have to physically be involved.”

Alex had only the basic grasp on Harry Potter and probably hasn’t even seen the movies in order so he should tell Willie no, he wasn’t interested, and move on with his life and get back to what he  _ should  _ be doing which was talking to prospective pledges.

But Willie was literally hot like burning and Alex wanted to see him more.

“Sure,” he said, shrugging. “I’m down.”

Willie smiled his absolutely gorgeous smile and Alex felt his heart in his throat as he pulled a clipboard out from the bag that he was carrying (which,  _ how _ had he missed that?) along with a pen and thrust them into Alex’s chest, just barely avoiding the hotdog stain.

“Perfect! You’re number eleven, so we’re literally almost there,” Willie cheered. “Seriously dude, try and look up videos of other people playing, it’s super gnarly and looks fun and I think it’ll be really cool to get a group of people here to do it. We need some more nerdy shit, you know? Not like,” he clicked his tongue, “Greek life or anything.”

Alex carefully grabbed the clipboard and pen from the man and wrote his name, year, and email address down while trying to scan it at the same time until he saw ‘ _ William Barnes, Junior, barneswi@students.university.net’  _ at the top.

‘ _ Alex Mercer, Sophomore, merceral@students.university.net’  _ joined at the bottom of the list under a  _ Julie Molina, Flynn Roberts,  _ and  _ Bobby Wilson. _

“Thanks so much man,” Willie said, taking the clipboard back and stuffing it back in his backpack. “Hopefully I can get the last two signatures today and get it to the Dean on Monday so we can have a first meeting or whatever soon. I’ll email you when I know something?”

_ Or you can have my number and call _ “Yeah that sounds good,” Alex replied with a smile. “Good luck, yeah?”

Willie laughed and dropped his board before stepping on it and skating away. “I won’t need it!” trailed behind him and Alex stared at the hole in the back of the guy’s pants that was so close to his ass he could see a strip of fabric that was  _ probably  _ Willie’s underwear.

Eventually, once Willie disappeared in the crowd of college students, Alex sighed, remembered he had the remnants of his hotdog splattered on his hoodie, and started making his way over to the Delta Gamma girls.

Carrie probably had a Tide pen in her purse.

* * *

Willie had, originally, thought that the Quidditch club would take a week at most to be approved, but Alex didn’t hear from the other man until a whole month into the semester.

He wasn’t that upset about it. Honestly.

A whole month of classes, duties to his fraternity, taking on a  _ little brother _ which  _ holy shit _ who decided to let him shape a young mind and  _ how _ was he supposed to stop the kid from getting alcohol poisoning when he doesn’t even know how  _ he’s  _ avoided it, and everything else continued to pile up while he didn’t hear a word from Willie.

Okay yeah, he was upset about it. He  _ knew _ he should have given the guy his number when he had the chance, but hindsight was 20/20.

Alex sighed into his Intermediate Piano textbook and slammed his hands on the keyboard he had rented for the hour for the music department and looked at the clock for the fourth time in the past ten minutes. 

He  _ hated _ his Piano class and wished that he didn’t need to take it. He could keep a different time with each limb while drumming better than he could get all of his fingers to cooperate and  _ no _ that sounded  _ awful _ -

“Hi, I’m sorry,” a voice said, interrupting his keyboard smash at his inability to get the  _ stupid fucking chord right _ . “Umm, my rental time has started.”

Alex looked up and smiled ruefully at the girl. He didn’t recognize her at all, but their department was large and she looked like she was twelve so they probably didn’t share any classes anyway. The girl had long, curly brown hair and a small gap in her teeth that was more endearing than off-putting.

“Yeah sure,” Alex replied. He pushed the piano bench back and the both of them winced at the scrape of the wood on the concrete floor. “Sorry. Yeah, absolutely no problem. If I look at this stupid keyboard for another minute I’m going to throw it out the window.”

The girl laughed. “I thought that when I started learning too,” she said. She smiled, shyly, and held her hand out. “Julie. I’m a freshman.”

Alex shook her hand with a smile. “Alex. A sophomore.” He paused, thinking. “So you’re good at the piano?”

Julie laughed again. “I’d say so? I got into Berklee but decided to stay closer to home so-“

“ _ Berklee _ ?” Alex asked, stunned. “Like,  _ Berklee  _ Berklee?”

She nodded. “Berklee Berklee. So yeah, I’m good at piano. At least they thought so.”

“Can I pay you for lessons?” Alex blurted out. She looked at him, confused, and he backtracked. “Not right now! Obviously! You seem like you’re about to be super busy and, like, I got a class to get to anyway but like, soon? I’m kind of floundering and performance is a big part of the class and I can’t get my fingers to work right.”

Alex quickly cut himself off with his rambling, knowing that if he kept going he wouldn’t stop and he left the house without taking his meds this morning because he had a test in his English Lit class and was running late.

“Yeah definitely,” Julie said with a soft smile. “Do you want to give me your number? So we can work out a time?”

Letting out a deep sigh of relief, Alex pulled his phone out of his back pocket and quickly pulled up his contacts. The two of them traded information with plans to meet up for lessons soon and Alex quickly left, already running late for his class across the campus.

“Holy shit you talked to her?”

Alex jumped, nearly colliding into the wall as Luke appeared out of nowhere and stared at Julie through the window of the practice room as she sat down at the piano and started to go through scales.

“Luke, please tell me you’re not being a creep,” Alex sighed.

“A creep?” Luke asked. He held his hand to his chest and faked like he was clutching a set of pearls. “How could you  _ ask _ that?”

“Tiffany Collins in third grade,” another voice said, coming out of nowhere. Alex jumped again but relaxed when Reggie walked around the corner. “Molly Rowe in seventh.”

“Roger _and_ Mary Hopper, tenth grade,” Alex added.

“Okay, okay, I see what you mean,” Luke replied, his brows furrowing and his familiar pout that, if Alex hadn’t known him since he still occasionally wet the bed, would probably make him feel sorry for him. “But no, not a creep. I heard her playing a couple of weeks ago and  _ man _ can she sing so I just-“

“Wanted to pick her brain?” Reggie asked. 

“She has the voice of an  _ angel _ you guys, you can’t blame me,” Luke replied.

Alex scoffed. “Do you even know her name?”

“No, why?” Luke asked, affronted. Alex watched as a look of realization fell on his face. “Do  _ you _ ?”

“Well yeah,” Alex replied with a shrug as he started walking. Luke ran to catch up and Reggie, probably out of a lack of things to do, followed him. “ _ Julie _ is going to be teaching me piano.”

Alex watched as Luke quietly mouthed the girl’s name to himself and made eye contact with Reggie over the other guy’s head. Reggie just shrugged in return.

The trio walked in silence for only a moment before Luke started talking about something to do with his Geology class (Alex  _ thought  _ he was an engineering major but apparently he had changed) and Reggie started going on about the cute guy in his Swing Dance club that he  _ swears _ was hitting on him and should he ask him out?

Alex just smiled and let the familiar voices of his very best friends wash over him. A sense of calm that he definitely needed today.

“Hey Hotdog!”

And the calmness?

_ Immediately _ disappeared.

“Hotdog?” Reggie asked, confused, as the three of them turned towards the shout to see Willie (yep. Even the month not seeing him did nothing to dull the man’s hotness. Alex was a  _ goner _ .) skating up to them.

Instead of colliding with him, this time, Willie kicked his board up and stopped within a foot of Alex and he felt his heart jump into his throat at just how  _ close _ the other man was and how  _ easy _ it would be to pull him in for a kiss.

“Hey Willie,” Alex replied. His voice was thick and he coughed once, twice, to clear his throat. “How’s it been?”

“Fucking stressful man, let me tell ya,” he replied. “The Dean’s office has been giving me a run around and all my professors keep going on about internships and junior year is kicking my ass. How about you?”

“Pretty much the same except absolutely none of that,” Alex replied with a grin. “Oh, yeah. You said the Dean’s office was being difficult? Do you have an update on the Quidditch thing?”

“Quidditch? From Harry Potter?”

Alex and Willie turned, in unison, at where both Luke and Reggie were still standing next to them and listening to their conversation.

Alex wouldn’t lie, he had genuinely forgot that they were there.

“Yeah,” Willie answered, trailing off before he grinned. “I’m trying to start a Muggle Quidditch thing on campus. I’m Willie.”

“Dude, that’s sick,” Luke replied. The two of them bumped forearms (??? What???) and laughed in unison. “I’m Luke. Need anymore people?” He looked over at Alex and wiggled his eyebrows. “Or by ‘Quidditch’ do you mean-“

“Hey I’m Reggie,” Alex’s favorite friend interrupted, hip checking Luke aside. 

Thank God for Reggie.

“Nice to meet you guys,” Willie said, quickly glancing at Alex who only shrugged in response. “And yeah. Totally. We definitely need more people.”

“So you got the go ahead?” Alex asked.

Willie nodded. “Yep! The approved charter came through today. I was heading to the library to start sending out emails.”

“Congrats,” Alex replied. “Do you know when the first practice will be?”

Willie shrugged. “Probably during Dead Hour? I haven’t thought that far out yet.”

“Well we’ll be there, for sure,” Luke said, swinging his arms around both Reggie and Alex. “Nice to meet you, man.”

The other guy grinned and waved. “You two, dude.” He turned to Alex and beamed up at him. “See you around Hotdog.”

“Please don’t call me that,” Alex replied, smiling back and trying not to fall into the other man’s eyes.

Instead of replying, Willie just laughed and skated away.

Immediately, both Luke and Reggie turned to him.

“So, Willie?”

Alex sighed. 

It looks like he  _ wasn’t  _ going to class after all.

* * *

Which led to Alex and his two best friends standing in a park with a piece of PVC pipe between their legs and running around, throwing slightly deflated balls at each other and through two sets of hoops.

Ideally, the physical activity aspect wasn’t what Alex had in mind when he agreed to do this.

Or at least, the physical activity aspect where he and Willie were fully clothed and around nineteen other people.

Alex still really had no idea what he was doing. For the most part, he kept to the edges of the field and tried to avoid being tackled by the small, yet absolutely ferocious, person with long box braids that was an absolute  _ demon _ on the field. He had a solid foot and some change on them, but Flynn (at least, that’s what he thinks their name is) would take him down in a  _ second _ .

They had already gotten Reggie. Twice.

“What do you think?” Willie asked as he came to a stop beside him. Alex awkwardly regripped the pole between his legs and tried not to blush.

“It’s definitely… something,” he finally replied.

Willie let out a small laugh and Alex’s heart  _ soared. _ “Isn’t it? I’m just really glad this many people showed up. After my friends bailed I honestly didn’t think it would happen.”

Apparently, the three friends that Willie had tried to start the Quidditch team with hadn’t exactly been as into it as their friend and, once it got time to actually start taking it seriously, had pulled out.

And that’s not to say that, as soon as Alex heard about his issues, he  _ didn’t  _ try and convince every single person he had some semblance of sway with to join the team, if only so there would actually  _ be _ a team and he could spend more time with Willie.

Not at all.

(But he definitely owed Carrie and she was ruthless, he was going to have to be her date to all of the formals that DG had that year and he was  _ dreading  _ it.)

“I’m glad it did,” Alex replied. “It’s fun. Different, but fun.”

Willie laughed, again, and clapped him on the shoulder, squeezing it tightly before letting go and Alex felt his bones turn to jelly at the touch of the man’s warm hand. “Come on! I think you should try being Keeper next. You’re tall.”

And, like the simp he was (thanks Luke), Alex followed.

* * *

And then, they got  _ good _ .

It wasn’t overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all. The small team that had been cobbled together with people of all athletic backgrounds (or lack thereof) didn’t become fantastic in a day. It took work.

It took twice weekly practices during Dead Hour and weekend practices whenever enough people could get together. It took fundraising events to get better equipment and actual jerseys for the team. It took a lot of coordination on, yes, they could go to this tournament three hours away but only on this day and these people would have to miss the next two practices to make up for it.

But they did it and they were  _ good _ . All of the hard work and effort that they all put in for the fictional sport was actually paying off and, according to Julie who had taken to record keeping for them by  _ storm,  _ they actually had a chance at competing in the League finals.

When Willie had mentioned, all those months ago, about an actual League, he hadn’t been kidding. 

The International Quidditch Association (because yeah,  _ that _ was a thing) was made of collegiate and community teams all over the world. They facilitated most of the matches between the teams, even if the actual governing bodies were never there, and instead kept track of everything in, what Alex assumed, were nicely organized Google docs. It was large and intimidating, but apparently once you won enough games, and your Regional matches, you became eligible for the Quidditch World Cup.

And, apparently, they were within reach.

“Dude, just, listen.”

Alex could  _ feel _ the heart-eyes coming out as Willie paced back and forth in their small study room they had signed up for to, ideally, work on their ever-growing pile of homework, but had actually turned into talking about the team.

Unfortunately, Alex had yet to actually make a move on Willie. While he was still  _ undeniably _ attracted to the older man (because honestly, who wasn’t? He even thought he has seen his fraternity little brother Nick, who was an aromantic asexual, drooling over him whenever he took his shirt off at practice the other week.) he couldn’t make himself say the actual words.

That’s not to say that they didn’t hang out almost constantly. The two of them got lunch together before practices and sat next to each other at team movie nights whenever Dr. Harrison would let them use a lecture hall to screen the Harry Potter movies and even studied together even though their classes were wildly different. But, Alex hadn’t actually bit the bullet and told the other man that he wanted to lick his abs.

But damn, did he want to lick his abs.

“Did you hear anything I just said?”

Alex snapped back, feeling a blush rise on his face as Willie stood literally in between his legs as he had apparently spaced out. He had a teasing grin on his face and a small strand of his long hair had come out of the ponytail the older man had put it in an hour ago whenever he started to get more and more excited and all Alex wanted to do was tuck it back behind his ear.

God he was  _ so _ gay.

“Of course I did,” Alex rebutted. “But could you, uh, say it again? Just to make sure I heard it right?”

Willie huffed out a laugh and stepped away from him, choosing instead to sit on top of the table and kick his legs back and forth. “You good there, ‘Lex? You seem a little out of it.”

Alex waved him off. “I’m fine, really. Just… got distracted.”

“Oh yeah?” Willie asked. “Distracted by what?”

_ You _ . “That I think the people in the study room next to us are having sex.”  _ Which I wished we could be doing. _

Willie laughed, again, and it was still the most beautiful sound Alex had ever heard and he majored in music. “I was saying that, if we win at least three games at Regionals next week and five different games next semester, we’re a shoe-in for the Cup.”

“Do you think we can do it?” Alex asked, leaning in.

The man on the table bit his lip and grinned, leaning in as well until we was close enough that Alex could reach up and grab one of his necklaces and pull him in for a kiss. “Without a doubt, Hotdog.”

Alex opened his mouth to say something, anything, before the door to their study room slammed open. The two of them jumped apart, Alex going so far as to almost tip his chair back.

“What the fuck, Alex?” Carrie asked, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. “You were supposed to be  _ ready _ by now, we need to get to Kayla’s to start pregaming before taking the bus to the venue.”

It was then that he realized the girl was wearing more makeup than usual and was wearing a sequined dress that she had sent him pictures of so he could appropriately match. His dress clothes were in his car which he should have already changed into, but time tended to slip away when he was with Willie.

“Oh shit, Care,” Alex replied. “Fuck I’m sorry.” He pushed himself out of the chair and quickly gathered his stuff up and shoved it in his bag. “My clothes are in the car, I’ll change at Kayla’s.”

“Hurry up,” she replied. “We don’t have all night.” The stern expression on her face lifted and she turned to Willie, who was still awkwardly sitting on the table, and smiled. “Hey Willie. Can you believe this guy?”

“Yeah,” Willie replied, a wry grin on his face as he smiled softly at Alex before turning, fully, to their teammate. “Silly Alex.”

Carrie let out a laugh that if you didn’t know her you would think was fake. “See you at practice! Alex, come  _ on _ !l

“Yes, dear, of course dear,” Alex grumbled under his breath. He resisted the ever-present urge to kiss Willie on the cheek and instead grabbed onto his shoulder, squeezing it. “Text me, yeah? We can talk about fundraising for the Cup.”

“You think we’ll get to go?” Willie asked, looking up at him with a soft look on his face.

“With you as captain?” Alex questioned. “There’s absolutely no doubt.”

And then with an awkward wave goodbye, Alex walked out of the room and joined Carrie in the lobby of the library.

“Sorry, ‘Lex,” the girl said softly. “I didn’t realize you’d be with Willie.”

“It’s no problem,” he replied, even though yes, it was a problem. “Now come on. Kayla’s right? Can you fix my hair?”

Carrie flipped her perfectly curled and pinned hair over her shoulder, wafting the scent of her perfume that he knew to be Cloud by Ariana Grande because he had gotten it for her for her birthday last month. 

“You’d be lost without me. Now come on. We’re going to make the Instagram if it kills you.”

* * *

Alex’s relationship with Carrie was weird, being that it both was and wasn’t an actual relationship.

Freshman year Alex, before he had really found the right dosage for his anxiety medication, had been a complete wreck. He was trying to be the image of the perfect son his parents had always wanted, which included going to the school they wanted him to go to and joining the fraternity that his family wanted him too and staying away from the people that they thought were ‘unsavory’, and with that came the anxiety.

But, he had met Carrie at a pre-Rush event. Carrie Wilson was, quite possibly, the most frighteningly competent person Alex had ever met and she damn well knew it. She was able to pick out in a second that he was gay and immediately plastered herself to his side.

It took a couple months before they both opened up to each other. Alex told her he was gay and she told him that she, too, was gay. He explained all of the drama with his conservative family and she, in turn, explained that her dad still loved her dearly but he was (extremely) famous and she needed to pretend to be something she wasn’t to not make things even harder on him.

So, with that in mind, the two of them decided to fake date. For all intents and purposes, Alex Mercer and Carrie Wilson were the star couple. Both Greek legacies, both majoring in something to do with music, both heavily involved on campus. Whenever Alex caught sight of her sorority president looking at them, he could see the wheels turning in her brain of how she could market their relationship and was only mildly scared.

But, even though they were only fake dating out of necessity (he definitely didn’t want any of his brothers to know he was gay) they quickly became very close friends. Alex would never tell anyone, but he considered her on par with Reggie and Luke in friendship terms.

It did mean that he always had a date to fraternity events and she loved that she didn’t have to train a new person every formal on how to dress or to pose for pictures.

They had talked, of course, about dissolving their fake relationship. Carrie’s dad was starting to speak out more and more on LGBTQ+ issues and was making a name for himself as an activist which meant that she would have no problems if she decided to drop him and date a woman. Her sorority wouldn’t care at all, either.

Alex? On the other hand? Well, the only reason he wasn’t disowned back in high school when his dad caught him with his dick down a guy’s throat was because he wasn’t the one on his knees. Every time he came close to coming out after that, his father would glare at him over the newspaper and his mother would break a plate.

By the time he went off to college, they didn’t have that many plates left.

If it was just being disowned, fine whatever. Alex could deal. He would get an apartment with the guys and live out Luke’s dream of being a rock band. He would have all the time in the world, after all, because he’d have to drop out of college because the Mercer’s? Were currently paying Alex’s tuition.

A lot of things were at stake and nobody up until Willie had made him question it.

And he hadn’t even kissed the guy for Christ’s sake!

* * *

Despite all of his efforts, Willie didn’t text him back for the entire week after Carrie had come and collected him. Alex felt guilty, at first, and then hurt, and then angry. 

Like, for real? What gives? It’s not like they were dating or anything and Willie  _ knew _ that Carrie was his friend because he was the one who had drug her to the first Quidditch practice and convinced her to stay when they needed the extra people for the team. Now? She’s one of the best Beaters they have.

(And every time Alex thinks about Carrie actively Beating he shivers because she may be small but she is absolutely terrifying.)

Still, once the week passed it was time for Regionals. They couldn’t afford to rent a bus for all twenty-three team members, so they carpooled.

And Alex? Got stuck in a car with Willie.

For a four hour drive.

After the man had basically ignored him for a whole week.

No, he wasn’t nervous.

_ Yes he was. _

The early morning hour came when the entire team gathered around the caravan of cars that were going to take them to the University that the games were being held at. Alex, blearily, showed up with his duffel bag over one shoulder and Luke hanging onto the other.

“Man, why’s it gotta be so early?” 

“Because Julie is a taskmaster,” Alex replied, grunting at the weight of his friend.

But, at the mention of his crush, Luke immediately perked up and engaged the patented Luke Patterson Heart Eyes in full force.

“Julie? Is she here?” He asked, quickly looking around to see if he could spot her.

Alex sighed. “Probably,” he replied. “She has to make sure everyone gets in the right car.”

Julie’s Carpool System was a work of genius. After their first away tournament where Willie had had to convince Flynn to not drop the team after they and one of the Chasers got in a fight, Julie had stepped up and organized everyone into cars based entirely on a personality questionnaire she had taken from one of her Psychology classes.

(Alex tried not to notice that she always put herself in whatever car Luke was in. Not at all.)

But that did lead to Alex and Willie riding in Willie’s two-seater truck (that carried all of the Quidditch equipment) together.

Alone.

Luke, in a stunning 180 in attitude, quickly skipped off to find Julie while Alex stood still in the middle of the lot and started to worry. He could feel the choking feeling of panic that he usually only got whenever he had to present in class or say something at a fraternity thing.

Would Willie not want to ride with him anymore? Would Julie change the carpool list? Would Willie tell her to take him off the list entirely and kick him off the team?

Alex could feel his breath start to get shorter and shorter and, soon, he couldn’t feel the tip of his nose until two warm hands landed on his shoulders and squeezed.

“I hope you have some good music, Hotdog,” Willie said in his ear. “Remember, it’s your turn to choose the tunes.”

Alex felt his heart skip a beat as Willie, who had basically ghosted him this past week, let go of his shoulders and came to stand beside him, watching over the crowd of sleepy players.

He opened his mouth to say something, anything. Maybe try and get an explanation on why the other man pretended he hadn’t existed for the past week or even just a simple hello because he had genuinely  _ missed _ him, but before he could say anything Willie let out a shrill whistle and everyone turned to look at him.

“Alright guys,” Willie said, a broad, effortless smile on his face. “We’re in the first game and brooms up is directly at noon. I don’t care what you do from now until then, but it’s a four hour drive and traffic might get bad. If you stop somewhere for breakfast or to piss, don’t wear your jersey if you’re going to be an ass. Now, let’s roll out!”

The group of sleepy college students cheered, filled with a new energy as Julie started directing the last of the people into their cars while Alex followed Willie over to his truck.

It was a big, ugly thing that was easily older than the both of them combined. Willie had said once that his grandfather left it to him when he died and Willie had done everything to keep it in tip top shape even though it “used gas like a kid drank Capri Sun.”

Alex had grown used to the beast and it’s lack of air conditioning and the cassette player. It smelled vaguely like tobacco and weed and something outdoorsy and he always wondered  _ what _ exactly had gone on in it.

He threw his duffel in the floorboard and climbed up as Willie checked the straps holding in their extra hoops one last time as people started peeling out of the parking lot around them. Alex watched as Reggie leaned over Bobby, the driver of the car he was in, and waved at him and he nodded back.

“Let’s hit the road,” Willie said, the door of his truck creaking open. He easily jumped up and slid into the seat and got his hand on the gearshift. The engine turned over once, twice, three times before finally rolling over and they ambled out of the parking lot.

The two of them were quiet, for a minute, and Alex tried to push down the awkward vibes. Did he bring up the ghosting or should he completely just brush past it and pretend it didn’t happen? He fiddled with his phone case as Willie turned onto the exit that would take them to the interstate and, as soon as he merged into traffic, Alex plugged his phone into the cassette player aux.

“So we feeling road trip vibes?” Alex asked. “Party rock? Modern disco? 90s pop?”

Willie chuffed a laugh, keeping one hand on the wheel and the other relaxed on the seat next to him as he leaned back. “Modern disco?”

“Oh yeah,” Alex replied. “It’s a lot of Dua, some Troye Sivan - a couple of Miley’s new songs. You know. Modern disco.”

“How about road trip music?” Willie asked. “I mean, we can listen to that until we stop for food or whatever and then switch it up.”

“You severely underestimate how long my playlists are,” Alex laughed. “You’ve met Luke, right? The human embodiment of music? He’s the one who’s made every playlist that Reggie or I have had since the ninth grade and none of them are shorter than six hours.”

Willie laughed as Alex selected the playlist title and blink-182 started playing, almost making the windows shake from the loudness. Alex went to turn it down, just to hear himself think, but Willie knocked his hand away and started lightly head banging.

Awkward silence it was.

—

The first three hours of the trip were honestly so painful Alex legitimately thought about jumping out of the truck into traffic.

Willie didn’t say a single word.

It wasn’t that Alex  _ needed _ the silence to be filled, sometimes he was perfectly fine with sitting in silence with someone, but Willie hadn’t even really talked to him this morning and not at all the past week and it was making Alex’s veins itch as the playlist continued but no one spoke.

He spent a good ten minutes trying to text his group chat with Luke and Reggie, but neither of them answered so he assumed they had fallen asleep. He thought about trying to do that himself, but he couldn’t get his heart rate to calm down enough to even be slightly rested.

He tried texting Carrie next, and then Julie, but Carrie just started telling him about how pretty Flynn looked while they slept and Julie just sent zoomed in pictures of Luke’s face with a dick drawn on it in marker.

Which was funny, but honestly not what he needed.

The two of them pulled off on an exit whenever their destination started appearing on signs to grab some breakfast. When Willie drifted into a parking spot, Alex didn’t even fully wait for him to turn the truck off before he was jumping out and running inside the gas station.

He could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and tried not to puke at the smell of the truck stop hot dogs that were, for some reason, cooking at nine in the morning as he quickly made his way to the bathroom.

Alex bypassed the urinals completely (public restrooms freaked him out) and instead braced himself on the edge of the sink, trying to breathe even as he felt his nose starting to tingle again.

He would  _ not _ have a panic attack today dammit.  _ Especially  _ not in a public bathroom off the interstate with some asshole shitting in the stall in the corner.

Not again.

Taking a few deep breaths, Alex splashed some water on his face and turned to stare at himself in the mirror. His pupils were a little wide from the anxiety and he could see a spot that he had missed when he had shaved the night before, but for the most part he looked normal.

(If he pretended that his eyes weren’t red from trying not to cry, well, that’s his business.)

After taking a couple of minutes to gather himself, Alex left the bathroom and made his way back out to the truck. He opened the door and the scent of McDonald’s hash browns immediately assaulted him. 

Willie sat on his phone in the driver seat, absentmindedly chewing on a McMuffin and literally pretending that Alex wasn’t even there.

“Did I do something?” 

When the other man startled, Alex realized that he had actually spoken, and once he started he couldn’t stop.

“Because like, usually we’re talking on trips and joking around but you haven’t talked to me in a week and I don’t know what I did if I did do something wrong and it’s driving me  _ crazy _ because, God, this is so awkward and I thought we were good but this is a lot and if you have an issue with me why didn’t you tell Julie to put me in another car or something but I seriously need to know if did something to, like, upset you or anything because if I did I’m  _ so _ sorry, Willie. I-“

Alex tried to continue talking, but Willie had put his hand over his mouth to try and stop him. The blonde could feel his heart nearly beating out of his chest and he wondered if there was another car of their team behind him that he could ride with as Willie just sat and  _ stared at him  _ instead of talking until the man finally opened his mouth.

“‘Lex, calm down, okay?” Willie finally said, softly. His eyes were earnest and he had a small smile on his face but it wasn’t a mocking smile, which is what Alex expected. “You don’t need to be sorry.  _ I’m  _ sorry. It’s not been a good week and, I don’t know, I guess I didn’t realize how it would look.”

Willie took his hand back and Alex resisted the urge to reach out and grab it, intertwining their fingers because they  _ did not  _ need that right now, and sighed.

“So are we good?” He asked. “Please tell me we’re good, I can’t-“

The other man laughed and Alex’s heart fluttered at the sound. “Yeah Hotdog, we’re good.” Willie looked at him and but his lip before looking down. “Now come on, let’s get back on the road. We got a tournament to win.”

Alex knew that things still weren’t completely fixed, but Willie was acting more normal than he had been so it was only with a little trepidation that he got back in the truck and pulled out the hashbrown that Willie had got for him.

Then, it was like the last three hours hadn’t happened at all.

Willie and Alex laughed and traded barbs and sang along to the music and it was honestly so perfect Alex regretted not saying something earlier so that  _ this _ could have been what they were doing the majority of the trip instead of whatever bullshit that had happened earlier.

About fifteen miles out from their destination, a song started playing over the speakers that was so familiar that Alex almost reached up to turn it off, but Willie actively slapped his hand away as the singing started. 

“Holy shit,” the man said. “Is that Luke?”

Alex sighed, wondering when Luke had updated the road trip playlist to include this song and, after a quick glance, the other three. 

“Yeah it is,” Alex replied. He could hear his harmonies in the background.

“Holy shit,” Willie said again, this time with a laugh. “I knew that guy loved music but I didn’t know he was in an  _ actual _ band! This is sick, bro.”

The blonde let out an awkward laugh as his part was coming up. “It’s something alright.”

And then-

_ “We’re not searching for tomorrow (tomorrow!) ‘Cause we got all we need today (today!)” _

“Shut the fuck up Alex!” Willie nearly screamed, all but bouncing in his seat and shaking the truck that was barreling down the interstate. “Is that you??”

Alex felt his face flush and, once he nodded, Willie started to yell.

“Why didn’t you tell me you guys were  _ in a fucking band! _ ” He said, a broad smile on his face and a laugh on his tongue. “Is that Reggie too?”

“And Bobby, yeah,” Alex replied, a wry grin on his face.

And then, the questions didn’t stop coming, “When did this happen? How long have you been a band? Yo, where did you record your music and how is it on Spotify?”

Alex let out a laugh. “Since high school? Probably? That’s when Luke actually started getting kind of serious about it. Carrie is actually in a music production class and a month or so ago she had to work in the studio for extra credit, or something, and we convinced her to let us be the music because we’re too cheap to actually rent studio time. Reggie even convinced Bobby to lay down some rhythm guitar and, well, it fit really well.”

“What’s your guys’ name?” Willie asked. “So I can find you guys myself.  _ Fuck _ man, I had no idea you could sing.”

“Sunset Curve,” Alex replied, with a smirk. “Tell your friends.”

* * *

The last little leg of the trip flew by in a way that Alex didn’t expect. Willie  _ insisted _ on listening to the rest of their music and making comments about it and even going so far as to learn the words to Now or Never which they were both singing as they pulled up to the park that would hold the tournament.

Alex and Willie practically fell out of the truck, laughing, as Willie continued to try and hit Reggie’s high harmonies. Before the blonde could say anything, both Luke (with the faded outline of a marker dick still drawn on his face) and Reggie himself were bouncing over and singing along. Bobby trailed along at a relaxed pace, but Alex could see the tendons in his arm move as if he were playing guitar chords.

“Alex!” Luke cheered loudly as soon as they ended the song. “You showed Willie our music!” The shorter man  _ threw  _ himself at Alex, grabbing onto his neck and hanging off of him. Reggie probably would have too if he hadn’t tucked himself under Bobby’s arm and started humming the song to the other man.

“It came up on the playlist,” Alex replied with a laugh, trying to untangle the frontman from his person. “Speaking of,  _ when _ did you put it on Spotify?”

“Did ya like it?” Luke asked. “Carrie really came through man. It would’ve taken me forever to figure out, but between her and Julie it was up and, dude, we’re already at like 15,000 streams!”

“But how many of those are yours?” Willie asked with a laugh.

“No comment.”

Eventually, Willie begged off to go talk with the other Quidditch captains who had started to gather together and Alex though, for a moment, to go and join him. The past hour had been so  _ good  _ and he didn’t really want it to end, but his friends had other plans and instead drug him over to where their team had started to gather, sitting in the shade and sitting on the Bludgers to deflate them a little more.

“Oh hey,” Reggie started, pulling himself away from Bobby for a moment. “We stopped at the Denny’s on Rowling before coming here and, dude, Charlie was there! We told her about the match and she said she’d try to get away!”

Alex’s heart twinged and he couldn’t stop a small smile.

Charlotte “Charlie” Mercer was his baby sister. She was only two and a half years younger, but they were basically attached at the hip whenever Alex made the drive back home. She was the first person he had ever come out too and Charlie was instrumental in almost all of his high school hookups. The fact that she could be here? Seeing the dumb, fictional sport that he had grown to love? Made him so fucking happy.

Eventually, Willie wandered back over from his talk with the other captains and everyone started to change into their jerseys as he started going over the game plan.

“Okay, so,” the man started, rubbing his hands together eagerly. He pulled a mini clipboard out from his pocket and Alex tried not to coo. “Today is gonna run like a mini bracket. There’s eight teams here from all over. We’re up against Harrisburg in the first match. They have us at second seed, and only because Harrisburg hasn’t lost a game yet.”

“That’s because they haven’t played us yet,” Flynn said, flipping their box braids over their shoulder. Carrie quickly moved to sit behind them and started braiding their small braids into a large, singular one. 

God they were so cute.

Willie nodded. “Exactly. We just gotta keep that momentum up and running. Luke, you’ll be snitching for the Jamestown and Louisville game. They asked if you could do more, but we need you Seeking for us instead.”

“No problem boss,” Luke replied.

“Okay, so starting will be Flynn and Carrie as Beaters, Alex as Keeper, and Nick, Julie, and I Chasing,” Willie said, looking at the clipboard. “Does anyone want to volunteer to ref?”

“I can do it,” Bobby said. “My certification came through last week.”

Willie snapped and pointed at him. “Good going, Bobbers. Now, are we fucking ready?”

All at once, the whole team started yelling and cheering. Alex felt his two best friends collide into him and a small person, probably Julie, jump onto his back.

They had this in the fucking bag.

And? They fucking did.

Their first match went by quick. Alex had gotten really good at Keeping and didn’t switch out at all, even when all the others did to recoup. Flynn didn’t either, choosing instead to offensively Beat and not even let the other team have the Quaffle for longer than a few seconds. They had scored enough points that by the time the Snitch showed back up, it didn’t even matter if the other team caught it because they were so far ahead. 

But they didn’t catch it, Luke did, almost completely shutting the other team out in a 140-30 point game.

After their first match, they had a little break. Luke broke off from them to be a Snitch for the next game and both Bobby and Julie went to referee it, but the others stayed under the tree they had claimed.

“Alex, you were smokin’ out there!” Reggie said, throwing himself roughly on the ground next to him. 

Alex blushed. “Come on, we were all doing good.”

“Can’t you just own your awesomeness for once?” The bassist asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alex heard Willie’s laugh before he saw him as the older man wrapped his arms around his neck and leaned on him. He almost choked at the feeling of Willie’s firm torso pressed against his back.

“Yeah, Hotdog,” Willie said with a grin. “Own your awesomeness. You kicked ass out there dude!”

He sighed, before a chuckle bubbled out of his throat. “Alright, I was killing it.”

“Alexander Archibald Mercer!”

The three of them looked up, shocked, and Alex felt his face stretch almost painfully into a grin as he (nicely) shoved Willie off and stood and ran, only to be met by a small blonde woman throwing herself into his arms.

“Charlie!” He said, spinning her around while she laughed. “I missed you!”

“‘Lex! Put me down!”

With one last squeeze of his little sister, Alex dropped the girl only for her to immediately be picked up and thrown over Reggie’s shoulder.

“She doesn’t walk much when you guys are in town, does she?” Willie asked, coming to stand behind him. 

Alex laughed. “No definitely not.”

Eventually, Charlie managed to wiggle her way out of Reggie’s hold and make her way back over to Alex who threw an arm around her shoulder.

“Oh gross, you’re sweaty,” Charlie said, fake gagging. 

“Shut up asshole and let me introduce you,” Alex goaded, reaching up and messing up her hair with his other hand. “Willie, this is Charlie. The most annoying little sister in the world. Char-“

“Oh so  _ you’re  _ Willie,” she said. Alex didn’t like how bright her eyes got. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“You have?” Willie asked, confused.

Charlie laughed and Alex and Reggie made awkward eye contact over her head as she started speaking. “Oh yeah,” she said. “Almost every time I talk to Alex he’s talking about how you-“

“And that’s enough,” a new voice said. Alex and Reggie both jerked their heads and, if Alex was sweating before he was definitely sweating now. “Don’t be mean to your brother.”

Trevor Wilson had always been Charlie’s best friend, first and foremost. However, he didn’t make it quiet that he had always had a thing for Alex. And, well, it was a small town so it’s not like guys were just jumping at the bit. Trevor was also the last person Alex slept with back home before going off to college. 

In fact,  _ he _ was the one that his dad had caught him with.

The two had agreed to stay friends, for Charlie’s sake, and both of them had told her what had happened. Trevor, so she could help him heal his broken heart because Alex was going off to college, and Alex because he was the reason that her favorite Hercules plate had been broken by their mother.

It was weird to have a former fling and the guy he was probably in love with in the same zip code and Alex genuinely didn’t know how to feel about it, other than anxious.

“Trevor, hey,” Alex said, a smile on his face. Charlie weasled her way out of his arms and he opened them for the other guy. “It’s been awhile.”

Trevor wasted no time in hugging him back, a little too long, but honestly that’s how the kid always was even before the sleeping together. “You don’t come back enough,” he said. “I mean, I understand why, but still.”

Alex shrugged and let the smaller man out of his hold and turned to Willie who was staring at him with an appraising look in his eyes. “Trevor, this is Willie. He’s our captain. Willie, this is-“

“Trevor Wilson,” the younger man interrupted, holding out his hand. “I’m Charlie’s best friend and Alex’s-“

“Hey,” Reggie interrupted, right as Alex’s heart started to race. He just knew that the next word out of Trevor’s mouth would’ve been ‘ex’. “Looks like Luke is back. I wonder how long it’ll take for them to catch him.”

With a grateful look at Reggie, Alex looped his arm back around his sister and went to stand next to Willie who was still looking at him in a way that Alex couldn’t read. Trevor went to stand on the other side of his sister and kept cutting eyes at him. 

“I wondered how they did the Snitch!” His little sister said, jumping in place. “And Luke? Wow that’s kind of perfect.”

“Right?” Willie replied. “Reggie’s actually our backup Snitch too.”

“Reg!” Charlie exclaimed, turning to him. “You?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The bassist asked, offended.

The game quickly ended with Louisville coming out on top, which meant that they would face them in the semifinals. Luke, now that his Snitching was done for a bit ran over to them and immediately hoisted Charlie into the air and made Alex laugh at Willie’s words from earlier.

They had a while until their next game so, while Willie went and made nice with the other captains, Alex, Luke, and Reggie taught Charlie and Trevor how to actually play Quidditch and even threw an extra Quaffle around, occasionally joined by some of their other team members.

Even if Carrie did loudly declare that Charlie was her favorite Mercer sibling, which, rude.

The group of friends all ate lunch together, letting the two kids (well, they were almost adults but Charlie would always be his kid sister) sit and chill with them, talking about what college was like. 

Charlie had planned to go the same place that they were. It had a chapter of their mother’s sorority and the promise of free tuition was too sweet of a deal to let go of. Trevor, on the other hand, was heading to Julliard, which was fawned over by all of his musically talented friends.

“Hey Al,” Charlie muttered, nudging him. “Can we talk?”

“Of course,” Alex replied. He looked at the time and realized they still had almost forty-five minutes until the next game. “Let’s go check out the dog park, yeah?”

“Race you!” His younger sister declared, standing up and immediately running off. He heard Julie and Luke start to laugh at him as he quickly pushed himself up and ran off after his sister, tapping Willie lightly on the shoulder as he ran by, causing him to flip his head around confused.

“You’ll pay for that Hotdog!” The older guy called after him. Alex laughed and flipped him off as he tried to catch up to his sister.

The two of them grew up super close. They were only two and a half years apart in age and had similar interests (boys, mostly, and music.) She was almost always underfoot whenever he and the guys would have a jam session to let off some steam and he was the first person she had told whenever she got her first boyfriend.

He wouldn’t trade their relationship for the world.

“So what’d you want to talk about, Shortstack?” Alex asked once they were successfully away from everyone.

The dog park was completely empty - apparently the loudness of over 100 college students and their audience turned people away from hanging out in the park today. Alex could still hear the cheering from the crowd of the last match before the semi-finals and he wondered what was happening.

“I just missed you,” his little sister said, turning to him with a grin. “Also, I wanted to talk about Willie. Have you hit that yet?”

Alex groaned and knocked his head against the fence in front of him, causing Charlie to burst into laughter. 

“Not for my lack of trying?” He said. “Half the time I think he’s totally into me but then other times I realize I don’t even know if he’s any kind of queer enough to be interested.”

“He’s talking to you though,” Charlie said. “So I guess you figured out what his issue was.”

Of course he would tell her about the weird ghosting thing the other man was doing. Alex shrugged. “We didn’t really talk about the cause, but we’re good now at least. I almost had a panic attack in a truck stop bathroom on the way here over it.”

Charlie sighed. “Alex…”

“Hey ‘Lex!” Bobby called. “The Snitch is back and it looks like it’s gonna be quick. We might need to get going soon.”

Alex waved at the other man in acknowledgement before turning to his sister who was staring up at him. “I’m gonna piss before the match because who knows how long it will take. Tell them where I am?”

“Sure bro,” she replied. Charlie shoved him and he laughed before shoving her back and headed to the public bathrooms.

He quickly did his business as he heard the cheering from outside getting louder and louder and then the final score called to the crowd with a megaphone. Alex barely had time to blink when he was finished washing his hands before he was shoved up against the sinks and a pair of lips attached to his own.

“Trevor, what the  _ fuck _ ?” he asked, once he pushed the other guy away. Instead of replying, the younger man just laughed and pulled Alex closer to him with one hand on the front of his jersey and the other tangled into the hair at the nape of his neck.

“So Charlie gets alone time with you, but I don’t?” The boy asked, a pout on his lips. “I  _ missed  _ you Lexie. It’s been awhile. No one around here is like you.”

“Well, one, Charlie is my sister and two, yeah dude I guess I missed you too but this? Is going too far. I thought we agreed to stop.”

Trevor scoffed. “No, you  _ insisted _ we stop because you couldn’t let daddy down like the perfect son you are. Do you new friends even know that you’re-“

“Of course they do, what the fuck?” Alex asked. He sighed and stared down into the eyes of the kid that, at one point, he had actually had feelings for. “I’ve got to go Trev, let me go.”

Trevor rolled his eyes. “Ugh fine, spoilsport. I thought you’d like to at  _ least _ get off since you don’t seem to be getting any from tall, tanned, and hot out there.” With one final smirk, the smaller boy stood on his tiptoes and pressed his lips solidly to Alex’s.

He felt his stomach dropped and he gripped tightly onto Trevor’s shoulder in response, only pushing him away once he tried to deepen the kiss.

“Don’t you have a game to get to?”

Trevor walked past him with a chuckle and disappeared into one of the stalls while Alex ran a hand through his hair and adjusted himself (it  _ had _ been awhile, okay, it was a natural reaction) before running out of the bathroom and to the field where his team was waiting. 

“Alex!” Julie yelled, excitedly. “We thought you ran away.”

He laughed, and let out a little cough. “Can’t get rid of me that easily.”

But he wasn’t the only one late to getting back, Flynn ran up as well and stopped next to Willie who was looking at them, confused. “Didn’t you go to grab Alex?”

Flynn just shrugged while turning to him with a look that he couldn’t necessarily read but it sent shivers down his spine. “I must have missed him. Glad you’re back  _ Lexie _ .”

Nobody else took notice of the nickname. There were days that the entire team called each other anything that wasn’t their actual name and he  _ knew _ that Carrie and Julie had already called him that today already.

But that look? With that attitude?

Flynn had seen him and Trevor in the bathroom.

* * *

The next game was, well, it was rough.

Maybe it was because Louisville was a tougher team, but Alex knew that it was because his head definitely wasn’t in the game.

And then he actually wasn’t in the game when there was a misfire involving Flynn, a Bludger, and his head.

“Hey Hotdog, you good?”

Alex cracked open his eyes and immediately closed them again as the bright sunlight beat down on him. His head was  _ throbbing _ and he kind of felt like he needed to puke.

“Did anyone get the license plate on that truck?” he asked. He tried to sit up but a firm hand on his chest held him down.

“I don’t think you need to be up and walking man,” Willie said, concerned. “You got hit pretty hard.”

“I need to get off the field though,” the blonde said. “So you can finish the game.”

“Fuck the game man, do you need an ambulance?”

“Do you mean can I afford an ambulance?” Alex asked, sarcastically. “To which the answer to that is no. I just need to like, sit in the shade for a bit.”

“You’re being sarcastic so I’m going to assume you don’t have a concussion,” the other man said. “We’ll plop you in under the tree. You’re out of this game man.”

“That’s… probably smart.”

Alex closed his eyes again and tried to keep his nausea down so he could maybe stand up.

“Flynn, you’re out too,” he heard Willie say.

“Excuse me, what?” The Beater asked.

Willie scoffed. “You could’ve killed Alex. I know it was an accident,” was it? “but he needs someone to watch him to make sure he doesn’t actually fall into, I don’t know, a coma or something.”

One of the referees came over to hurry up the process. Alex tried to argue that, no, he didn’t need a babysitter, but Willie was insistent and both he and Flynn ended up sitting under the tree where the whole team had placed all of their stuff and the game continued on.

“I don’t see why I have to sit out,” the younger person said, angrily crossing their arms. “You could get one of your friends to watch you. Like  _ Trevor _ .”

“So you’re saying we’re not friends?” Alex asked as he held an ice pack that was quickly melting to the side of his head. “I thought we were friends, at least.”

Flynn scoffed. “I’m not friends with  _ assholes _ who cheat on their  _ girlfriends _ ,” they hissed through their teeth as one of their teammates scored.

“Cheating?” Alex asked, confused. “Me?” And then a second. “Girlfriend?”

“I know you just got hit on the head, but you’re not dumb,” Flynn said. “Carrie! I  _ saw _ you in the bathroom kissing your friend. How the fuck could you do that to Carrie?”

Now Alex was confused and he didn’t know whether it was because of the head injury or he was just lost.

“Carrie?”

“Yeah, your girlfriend?”

Alex let out a burst of laughter as the announcer declared the Snitch had returned to the field, which meant they were in the end game. He wasn’t sure what the totals were yet, but his teammates looked kind of worried from where they were sitting and he hoped that whatever had happened between him and Flynn didn’t fuck them up.

“Flynn, Carrie and I aren’t dating.”

They spluttered, practically doing a spit take with the water that they had just drank. “Excuse me? How hard did I hit you? Of course you are!”

“No, we’re really not,” Alex replied. “We’ve never  _ actually  _ dated.”

“But you-“

“Flynn, my parents are conservative assholes who threatened to stop paying my tuition when they found me with a guy,” Alex explained. “Carrie agreed to fake date me early freshman year to help keep them off my back. She was also tired of trying to train guys on how to take pictures of her, so it all worked out.”

A whistle blew and Alex watched as his team ran on the field and joined up in a huddle, lifting Reggie above their heads as he held the Snitch in his grasp.

They were into the finals!

Flynn was quiet and Alex was unable to read their expression, before they finally sighed.

“I’m sorry I brained you with a Bludger,” they said.

Alex snorted. “If you want to date Carrie, go for it,” he said. “You’re totally her type.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re fucking mean, man,” Alex said. Still, he smiled and nudged the freshman with his shoulder. “You’d also do anything for your friends and she would too. It’s like a perfect match or something.”

Flynn elbowed them in return. “Your head injury is making you sappy, Merc.”

“We won!”

The two of them looked up to see the whole team running over, bright grins on their faces. Luke and Bobby were still holding Reggie up on their shoulders and the guy looked  _ elated _ . He had never caught the Snitch before in anything other than one of their scrimmage games.

“What was the score?” Flynn asked.

“80-50,” Carrie answered. “Reggie literally saved our asses.”

Flynn stood up and made their way over to the girl and started talking and Alex smiled at them before turning to Willie who collapsed onto the grass next to him. 

“Good game?”

“It was alright,” the captain said. He took his hair out of the bun that he threw it in to play and ran his fingers through it. “Would’ve been better if we would’ve had our best Keeper and Beater though. How are you feeling?”

“Nick did okay though from what I could see,” Alex said, referring to the only other player on the team that was even somewhat decent at Keeping. “And I’m okay. It was just a really hard hit, but I should be fine to play in the finals.”

Willie turned to him, then, and grabbed his hand that was holding the ice pack. Alex let go of control completely as the other man moved his hand away from his head and leaned in close enough that Alex could see the sweat rivulets dripping down the other man’s neck and onto his collarbones.

It would take  _ absolutely  _ nothing to move closer and lick the other man’s neck. Nothing at all. He could feel Willie’s warm breath on his cheek and could even see the golden flecks in his eyes.

“It could be worse,” he eventually said, putting Alex’s hand with the almost completely melted ice pack back to the injury. “Just, sit out and take a breather. The other game should be quick and if you feel up to it I guess we could put you in the finals.”

“Come on,” Alex said, elbowing the man in the ribs with a grin on his face. “You need me.”

“I though Nick did alright?” Willie asked with a laugh.

Alex laughed and put all of his weight on the hand that was between him and Willie, just enjoying sitting close to him. 

* * *

The other side of the seed had their semi final match and Hatchgrove came out on top. After a quick break for dinner for both teams, Alex kneeled on the pitch with his broom on the ground ready to go after doing everything he could to convince Willie that he was good to play.

When the head ref called brooms up, they were off.

It wasn’t as good of a game as their first game of the day, but it still went better than the Louisville game even if they were way farther behind. The other team was taking no prisoners and Alex had had to help both Julie and Reggie off the field whenever they twisted their ankles during play.

“They’ll be fine,” Alex called to Bobby who was the defensive Beater. He was holding a Bludger tightly in his hand and kept looking over at Reggie to make sure he was okay. 

Bobby nodded at him and lobbed the ball, hitting the opposing Chaser who had possession of the Quaffle in the shoulder. Willie ran by and scooped the ball up and running to the other side of the pitch as Carrie followed close behind, ready to defend him with the Bludger that Bobby had thrown.

The man quickly ran to one of the opposing Beaters who had a Bludger and tackled them to get it, right as the Snitch made its way to the field, closely followed by Luke and the other Seeker.

Alex could see the sheer focus on his friend’s face and felt vilified when he easily reached up and knocked the Quaffle out of the air that a small Chaser on the other team had thrown. Bobby quickly pelted the other Chaser that was closer to the Quaffle as Nick grabbed it off the ground and ran.

He reared his arm back and threw it, but one of the opposing Chasers literally  _ jumped in the air _ and grabbed it before running full tilt towards Alex.

They threw the Quaffle at him, again, and Alex could only think to bat it back with his head (which didn’t help his injury from earlier) right as the whistle blew and Luke held the Snitch aloft in the air.

They had won 70-60.

Alex choked on air as Bobby ran up beside him and threw his arms around him, cheering. They had won Regionals!

Half of the team ran to Luke while the other half ran to Alex, celebrating the both of them. Willie had a bright grin on his face, his hair flowing free behind him after his hair tie broke three minutes into the game. Alex held his arms open-

And then Carrie stepped into them, reached up, and kissed him on the lips.

“Your parents are here,” she muttered, once she pulled back, a panicked expression on her face.

Alex turned, quickly, to see where Charlie and Trevor had been standing to watch and, yep, saw his parents standing right behind them. His mom was clapping and cheering along with his sister and his dad just stared at him with a large smile and an intrigued eyebrow.

When he looked back at Willie, the captain was gone.

—

“Alex! It’s so good to see you!”

Despite the fact that he was beyond sweaty, his mom still threw her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. Carrie, who, after their spontaneous kiss that he was still trying to get the taste of out of his mouth, hadn’t let go of his arm but his mom quickly turned to her next.

“And Carrie!” She said. “I see you’re still with this guy over here.”

“Well Mrs. Mercer, new ones are so hard to train,” Carrie said with a giggle. It was enough to make his mom laugh with her.

“I never knew you to be athletic, son,” his dad said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “I mean, you had that interest in soccer for a bit.”

“I guess it just took a fictional sport to make me like it, I guess,” Alex said sheepishly.

Alex was tall, but his dad was taller, and having to look up at him brought him back so many times to last summer when he had seen his parents and the man had talked to him about his duty as a son.

It made his skin itchy and all he wanted to do was climb back in Willie’s truck and go back to campus.

“I’m glad you’re still seeing the girl,” his dad said. “I knew you were just going through a phase in high school. We all do it. Carrie’s a fine woman son, and not bad to look at, eh?”

The man chortled and Alex nervously giggled. The two of them made awkward small talk with his family (Charlie mouthing apologies the entire time) until, eventually, the rest of his team started to make their way towards their cars.

“It was so good to see you Mr. and Mrs. Mercer!” Carrie said, a bright smile on her face as she waved goodbye at them before she kissed him on the cheek and ran to grab her stuff.

And then he was alone.

“You’ll be home for Christmas, right?” His mother asked as she hugged him again. “We just miss you so.”

“Yeah mom, I’ll be back for Christmas,” he replied, hugging her back.

“Maybe we can even come see the house,” his dad suggested. “I’m sure you boys have it all decorated for Christmas.”

Alex thought back to the half-assed Christmas tree his fraternity brothers had made out of beer cans and fishing wire and winced. “You don’t need to do that. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks and we can spend time together then.”

With one last hug from his mom and sister (who had whispered many fast apologies about how she didn’t know that they would actually come,) Alex trudged back over to his teammates who were standing and waiting for him.

Except for Willie.

“Hey man,” Reggie started, a weird look on his face. “Willie said he told you about how he needed to head back to campus quick and that you were catching a ride back with us?”

Alex’s jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, what?”

His friend shrugged. “I don’t know ‘Lex, he seemed weird but he insisted that you said it was fine.”

“Unless you want to stay here with mommy and daddy,” Luke jeered. Alex turned around to see if his parents were still there (they weren’t) and flipped him off.

“I mean, I guess,” Alex replied. “He didn’t mention anything to me about needing to leave quickly though.”

All Reggie did was shrug in return.

Later, about two hours into their four hour drive back to school and with Nick passed out on his shoulder and Reggie and Bobby holding hands and lowly chatting in the front seat, Alex pulled out his phone and shot a text to Willie.

_ Hey, are you okay?  _

He didn’t reply.

* * *

Alex was hurt.

Not like physically, even though he was still getting random headaches from his head injury the weekend before, but emotionally.

He had  _ thought _ that he had made up with Willie. They had acted like everything was normal the last leg of the drive and were their usual friendly selves at the tournament, but then just disappearing? And then actively ghosting Alex  _ again _ ?

Luke and Reggie wanted to go and confront him (he had gotten sad drunk in their dorm three days after the tournament because Willie  _ still _ hadn’t replied  _ and _ purposefully missed the last practice of the semester) but Alex had stopped them.

He may be in love with Willie, but the other man obviously didn’t like him even as a friend. At least enough to abandon him  _ while he was his ride _ .

During finals week, Alex thought he would catch glimpses of Willie skating by but every time he turned to look and, in one case  _ chase _ , there was nobody there.

So yeah, Alex was hurt.

“Okay look.”

Alex looked up from his (now cold) coffee that he had been staring at and not drinking for the past three hours in the campus cafe to see Flynn standing across from him with their arms crossed and a serious look on their face.

“Oh hey Flynn,” Alex said, forcing a smile on his face that had, so far, worked with his fraternity brothers, his sister over FaceTime, and Luke (but not Reggie) whenever someone would ask if he was okay. “How’s it going?”

“That’s not why I’m here and you know it,” they replied before sitting in the chair across from him. Flynn reached over and grabbed his coffee cup, taking a sip, before making a disgusted face. “What the hell is this?”

Alex shrugged. “Honestly I didn’t ask. Nick just thought it would cheer me up,” he said as he motioned towards their teammate who was standing at the counter and taking orders. Alex grabbed it from the younger person’s hand and took another sip before also making the same disgusted face.

“So, if you’re not here for small talk, why are you here?” Alex asked. “Finals are pretty much over, so shouldn’t you be headed home by now?”

Flynn shrugged. “I was waiting to go home until Carrie and Julie finished with their finals and Jules’ last one was today. But! I’m here to help you with your problem.”

“Which one?” Alex asked, confused. “The coffee? The anxiety? The fact that I will never be loved? Take your pick.”

“Oh God you’re just as pathetic as he is,” Flynn replied, rolling their eyes.

“As who?” 

They reached across the table and slammed him on the (noninjured) side of his head. Hard.

“Fuck Flynn, are you trying to give me  _ another  _ concussion?” Alex asked, immediately reaching up to grab at it as it started to throb.

“Shut up, idiot and let me help you,” they said. “Look, I’m gonna tell you something that is hardcore going to go against the Best Friend Code, okay? Like, you cannot tell Willie that I told you this.”

Alex felt his heart skip a beat and his stomach sink when she said Willie’s name. He had forgotten that the two of them had grown up together. 

“Flynn, I don’t really-“

“He thinks you’re straight.”

Alex felt his eyes widen as he spat out the small sip of the awful coffee that he had just taken. Flynn just rose a carefully sculpted eyebrow at him as they looked at the splattered drink on the tabletop.

“Repeat that please?”

“Willie. Thinks. You’re. Straight,” they said, pausing between every word. “He also thinks that you’re actively dating Carrie and in love with her because she knew your parents and won’t listen when I try to tell him that everything about your ‘relationship’ with her is fake. So, he’s trying to shut himself out so that he can get over his feelings for you, who he, again, believes to be a straight guy, so that he can come back in the spring semester and act like the bro he  _ thinks  _ you want to be.”

Alex honestly didn’t know how  _ anyone _ with a brain could believe that he was straight. All of his friends had picked up on it quick, Carrie had picked up on it  _ immediately _ when they were freshman. Even his  _ sister _ knew before he did.

“Do I just… give off straight vibes?” Alex asked. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. “I mean, I let Julie put me in  _ drag _ for Halloween for God’s sake, how does that give off straight vibes?”

“At least he doesn’t think you’re a closeted homophobe anymore,” Flynn said simply. 

“ _ Anymore _ ?”

They rolled their eyes. “Okay look. I told you this so you can fix it. The two of you moping are driving everyone insane and I’m the only one with balls big enough to tell you like it is.”

“But… how do I fix it?” Alex asked. “I mean, he doesn’t even like me-“

“You damn well know that’s not the truth,” Flynn interrupted. “Or if you do, do you not have  _ eyes? _ Whenever you two are within fifty feet of each other he can’t take his eyes off of you and I have heard  _ in detail _ how much he wants you to crush his head with your thighs.”

“My thighs? What-?”

“Willie is an RA for the arts and sciences dorm,” Flynn replied, not even answering him. “Second floor, room 215. He finished his last project final yesterday, but RAs can’t leave until Saturday.”

Alex sat still, gaping at them.

“The fuck are you waiting for?” Flynn practically yelled. “Get it together and go get your fucking man!”

Without any hesitation, Alex pushed his chair back. The legs scraped on the tile floor and he thinks the engineering student sitting at the table next to him hissed at the sound. He gave one last grateful look to Flynn who had flipped their braids over their shoulder and gave him a satisfied smirk as he ran out the door.

* * *

Alex didn’t think he had ever run as fast as he did towards Willie’s dorm in his entire life.

It had started to rain as soon as he left the cafe and he probably just looked like he was trying to get somewhere quickly without an umbrella, which definitely made him feel better when he slipped on a muddy patch of grass and fell on his ass in front of some of the ROTC.

The arts and sciences dorm was literally at the opposite end of the campus from the student center. It was the cheapest dorm out of all of them and also the easiest to get into because almost everyone fell under the arts and sciences program at their college. It had the most floors and the most residents.

When Alex burst through the doors (scaring what looked like a couple of Journalism majors) and saw that the elevator was broken, he was thankful that Willie only lived in the second floor.

He quickly made his way up the steps. His wet shoes squeaking every step he took and the only reason he didn’t fall was because of the grips on the edges of the steps. Alex threw himself through the doorway to the second floor and quickly looked around.

The hallways were long with plain, wooden doors interspersed every few feet. He could see that the bulletin board itself was decorated in a Game of Thrones design and the little door signs with the residents' names on them were dragon eggs.

God that was fucking cute. 

The little sign next to the bulletin board had two arrows, one pointing towards the rooms 200-230 and the other way pointing 231-260 which, thankfully, gave Alex a good start.

There, near the middle of the first set of thirty rooms, was 215.

There was a painting hanging next to the door, a portrait of Willie. He was hanging upside down on something and his hair was draped down. He had the biggest grin on his face and Alex felt his heart soar.

And then immediately sank into his stomach when he realized that he would actually have to knock on the door.

He took one, two, three, four deep breaths - enough to calm down his panting from running across campus but still not enough to stop his heart from wanting to beat out of his chest. He raised a hand and shakily knocked on the door.

It opened immediately and Alex almost cried.

Willie looked beyond confused to see him and opened his mouth to talk, but Alex knew that if he didn’t say something  _ immediately _ he never would.

“I’m gay.”

Well, that was definitely something to say.

Willie moved backwards, a confused look at his face and Alex slowly stepped forward, ready to put his hand out so that the other guy didn’t shut him out of his dorm room.

“Alex, what-“

“I’m gay,” he said, quickly. “I don’t know, I guess I gave off straight vibes? At least that’s what Flynn said after they slapped me in the head again - don’t worry, I’m fine. It was just their hand this time - and I legitimately have no idea how anyone could look at me and see straight, but you apparently aren’t the only one.

“Carrie and I aren’t actually dating. We never have,” he continued. “We just pretended to because my family is homophobic as hell and would disown me if I’m gay and she felt sorry for me. I don’t- I guess that kiss you saw that she gave me was what made you ghost me,  _ again _ , I might add which means I probably should have guessed that everything was because of Carrie but you honestly don’t have to worry about it now because she and Flynn are  _ precious _ together, let me tell you.

“And I know this is weird, me knocking on your door and telling you that I’m gay because, again, I thought it was super obvious that I wanted to literally lick your abs the day I met you but then we actually started hanging out and, it’s probably too early to say I love you but I can definitely say I love the  _ idea _ of you and me being together and like, going on picnics in your beast of a truck and studying together in the library and you coming with me to fraternity things and sucking your dick for hours because, like, you just have such big dick energy it’s insane, and-“

Alex knew that he was rambling, it was hard not to when the everything he said was just a conscious word vomit of all of his feelings and, fuck, he had even told Willie about the licking his abs thing  _ and  _ sucking his dick, but he was interrupted from his spiral with Willie gripping tightly to the collar of his shirt and pulling him down until their lips smashed together.

It wasn’t a perfect kiss, at first. Alex was still in the process of trying to talk and Willie pulled him quickly so their teeth clacked together but once he realized what was going on and got with the program, he stepped closer to the shorter man and turned his head, immediately deepening the kiss.

Willie’s mouth was a little chapped, but warm and his tongue was thick and insistent as it pushed its way into Alex’s mouth and he groaned around it as he reached up and grabbed Willie’s jaw with one hand and wrapped the other around the man’s waist and pulled them as close together as they could be.

He felt the tips of Willie’s fingers move underneath the collar of his shirt and he pulled back, a second, just to take a couple of deep breaths.

“I’m sorry I’m so stupid,” Willie finally said. At his words, Alex gripped his hip tighter and watched as the other man bit his bottom lip. “I mean, I literally could have just  _ asked _ what the deal was between you and Carrie, especially once Flynn came by the other day and read me the riot act but I didn’t believe them at all and-“

It was Alex’s turn to cut him off as he swooped back in, pressing their lips together. He felt more than heard Willie whimper into the kiss and Alex wanted to spend  _ days  _ trying to figure out what other noises he made.

“Shit, Hotdog,” Willie said, pulling away again. Alex bent down even further and started kissing the golden column of the man’s neck, feeling it jump as he swallowed. “You’re… you’re soaking wet dude.”

“It’s raining,” Alex said, between kisses. He moved down to the bit of shoulder that he could get to with Willie’s shirt in the way. “Flynn found me in the coffee shop and I ran here.”

He nipped at the meaty part of Willie’s shoulder and the man let out a loud moan that echoed through the hallway. If it wasn’t the last day of finals and Alex was sure that, even if someone was still living in the dorms they’d be in the library, he would probably be more ashamed.

And honestly, he’d definitely panic about it later once everything calmed down and he was able to fully think about his actions, but right now Willie was grabbing onto his shoulders and pulling him into his room.

Willie pulled him up and reconnected their lips as he shut the door behind him and he wasted no time in pressing Alex up against it and slipping a leg between his thighs. Alex grinded his hips down on the man’s leg and let out a moan.

“Fuck, Alex,” Willie moaned. “You need to… get out of those clothes.”

“You’ll probably need to help,” Alex said between heavy breaths as he cradled Willie’s face in his palms. “I’m pretty sure I’m stuck.”

The long haired man let out a soft laugh as he pressed two soft, sweet kisses to his collarbone. Alex’s eyes fluttered close at the feel.

Willie stepped back and Alex tried to pull him back in, but the man just laughed and gripped the hem of his shirt. “We’re pressing pause so you don’t get sick,” he said with a chuckle. 

Alex didn’t know whether it was because he was so turned on or that Willie’s hands were super warm on his cold, wet skin, but as the other man lifted his shirt up (almost painfully slowly, he might add) he couldn’t stop from shivering.

“You’re beautiful,” Willie muttered reverently once he had removed his shirt. 

“Really?” Alex asked, his voice pitching up at the earnest compliment. “Coming from you? I think I described you as a statue of a Greek God come to life when I was telling my sister about you.”

“When was that?” Willie asked, his voice soft as he patiently started to undo the button on Alex’s jeans. “Last week?”

Alex laughed and moaned as the back of Willie’s hand brushed against his hard cock through his pants. “Fuck- no. Back in like, September I think? Maybe after the practice that you ran around shirtless.”

“ _ That _ long ago?” Willie asked, stunned. His hands were still on the button and fly of Alex’s pants and he rocked his hips, trying to get the other man to get with the program.

“Yeah? But like, I thought about it the day we met,” Alex explained. He reached up and twisted a hand into Willie’s hair, not pulling, just keeping it there.

“I pancaked you that day!” Willie exclaimed.

Alex shrugged. “If that was how I was gonna go, I was okay with it.”

In lieu of words, Willie surged up and connected their lips in a bruising kiss as he quickly finished unbuttoning his pants. Alex kicked off his shoes and, between the two of them, they managed to wiggle his pants off of him and Willie tossed them into a corner as he pushed Alex up against the door again.

“So this is… this is a thing?” Willie asked. “Like, seriously? Not just, I don’t fucking know, a repressed gay guy getting his rocks off with the queer art major?”

Alex moved his hand from Willie’s hair to cradle his face, trying to look at him as earnestly as Willie looked at him.

“Willie, I am so far gone on you it’s  _ unreal _ ,” he said simply. “I wasn’t lying. Literally the only thing I can think about is you.”

Willie grinned and gripped tightly to Alex’s hips. He could feel the other man’s fingers on the waistband of his underwear. Finally, “I think you said something about sucking my cock? For hours?”

Alex laughed and bent down, kissing the other man and gripping the hem of his shirt. “You’re entirely too overdressed, dude.”

He wishes he could say that he took his time undressing Willie. He wishes that he could say that he worshiped the man’s body like the Greek God he was before he finally got his mouth around his perfect dick.

But, in actuality, the two of them nearly ripped Willie’s clothes off as they slowly shuffled their way over to the futon that the man had set up in his room. 

Willie practically collapsed onto the futon itself, his hands tangled in Alex’s hair as he trailed kisses down Willie’s toned chest. Alex spent a good minute licking the dips in Willie’s abs and nipping at the V that led to the real goal.

His dick.

Alex was no blushing virgin and he hadn’t been for years, but the sight of Willie’s cock made his mouth water in a way that he hadn’t had since the very first time he got his mouth on the captain of the soccer team in high school. It was shorter than his own, not by much, but it was thicker around and Alex seriously debated on whether he wanted to suck it first or ride it.

“You.. we don’t have to,” Willie said, calmly. “We can just, fuck, I don’t know. Watch a movie.”

“I’m just trying to figure out which hole I want you in first,” Alex replied. Willie’s grip tightened in his hair and Alex moaned at the feeling. “Fuck, okay. Mouth first. Ass later.”

Willie pulled lightly on his hair as soon as he put the tip in his mouth, lightly lapping at the head and the pre-cum that was there. Alex moaned around his cock and looked up to see Willie’s head thrown back and his chest heaving.

With that, Alex moved further down. Taking Willie’s dick deeper and deeper until he was only a couple of inches away from the base. He swirled his tongue around it before hollowing his cheeks and  _ sucking _ and he couldn’t stop Willie from thrusting up and hitting the back of his throat.

He gagged around the man’s dick and felt spit start to fall out of his mouth and Willie tensed with a,”Fuck, fuck -  _ sorry _ , I didn’t mean to, but  _ fuck _ that was hot Alex.”

The blonde relaxed his throat and took in more, feeling Willie’s dick slide to the back of his throat where he hollowed his cheeks and sucked again. Before Willie could do anything, he pulled back and his dick fell out of his mouth with a plop. “I need you to fuck my mouth,” Alex said. He licked the side of Willie’s dick, tracing the stark vein and watched as the man’s gorgeous thighs tensed. “Seriously. You’re not going to hurt me.”

Willie let out a loud groan as Alex took him back in his mouth and the blonde closed his eyes in pleasure, relaxing his throat, as Willie gripped tighter to his hair and slowly rocked his hips. Alex felt himself gagging and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he sucked.

“Alex, fuck, you’re so good,” Willie moaned and he slowly started to speed up. Alex gripped Willie’s calf with one hand and the other went around his own dick, starting to jack himself. “Shit,  _ fuck _ your mouth. I always thought you’d be good at sucking dick, but this?” He tossed his head back, his hair flying, as he let out a long moan when his cock brushed the back of Alex’s throat.

Alex could see Willie’s abs rippling and figured the man was close when he leaned up and curled around Alex, his slow body rolls turning into sharp pistons as his dick hit the back of his throat again and again again. Alex started stroking himself quicker, already feeling on the edge.

“‘Lex, I- I can’t,” Willie tried to pull his dick out, but Alex hollowed his cheeks and sucked one last time. Alex tried not to gag as the wet hot of Willie’s cum hit the back of his throat as the man let out an almost scream from his orgasm and Alex swallowed every last drop.

Alex kept his dick in his mouth, softly sucking as it twitched until Willie used the hands in his hair to pull him off.

“ _ God _ , you look so fucking, I don’t know, blissed out?” Willie said, his voice hoarse as he tried to catch his breath. Alex leaned back and looked at the ceiling of the dorm as he continued pumping his own hand up and down his dick. “Fuck, let me-“

Willie nearly fell off the couch and straddled Alex’s thighs as he reached his hand down and grabbed onto Alex’s cock, taking on the quick pace that Alex had been using because he was  _ so fucking close _ .

Alex dropped his dick and grabbed Willie’s ass, throwing his head back with a moan as his balls clenched and he came, covering the two of them in thin, white strips of cum.

His partner continued to stroke him until Alex felt his eyes start to water at the overstimulation before he pulled off and grabbed Alex’s chin and pulled him up for a deep, passionate kiss.

Soon, the two of the were able to catch their breath. They migrated from the floor of the dorm to Willie’s small, twin bed and Alex didn’t know where he began and Willie ended the two of them were so tangled up in each other. 

It had apparently stopped raining because the sunlight was drifting through the window, lighting up the many crystals and pieces of colored glass that Willie had hanging around his room, bathing the place in soft tones.

Alex couldn’t stop himself from lightly kissing Willie’s nose, his cheeks, his chin - anything that he could lazily reach. The older man laid there with a content smile on his face as he ran his fingers up and down Alex’s naked back, giving him goose bumps at the tender feeling.

“You know, I’m in love with the idea of you and I too,” the older man said, quietly, as if he was afraid that a loud noise would scare Alex off. 

The blonde pulled Willie into a near bruising kiss, feeling the man’s fingers clench onto his side and he couldn’t stop himself from thrusting, feeling his cock start to harden again whenever it brushed Willie’s own.

“Round two?” He asked, his voice rough and thick from their earlier actions. 

Willie threw his head back and laughed, his skin glowing from the sunlight streaming into his room as Alex started sucking a mark on his neck.

* * *

The sun had already set so the two teams were bathed in the hard, fluorescent glow of the stadium lights as the referee’s whistle sounded sharply, indicating that the Snitch had made its way back to the field.

Alex heaved a breath as he knocked the Quaffle away from their goal posts and into his boyfriend’s arms as Willie took off running down the field, jumping over two different Bludger throws before he tossed the Quaffle straight through the center hoop.

The referee’s whistle rang out again and Alex saw Luke jumping up and down, swinging the tennis ball sock around his head like a lasso, and the other Seeker staring dejectedly at him.

A cheer erupted from his own chest before he even knew what was going on and he joined the rest of the team as they bum rushed the Seeker. They all collided into a screaming, jumping mess.

The International Quidditch Association officials quickly walked over, carrying a large trophy that Willie and Carrie hoisted into the air, the team around them cheering

Alex caught his boyfriend’s eyes over the group and Willie winked at him as Julie climbed onto his back and Reggie started shouting in his ear.

Their private celebration later was going to be  _ fantastic _ .

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly can’t believe it’s done. Some of the specific scenes and places and things are taken from my own memories, like the tree at Regionals and getting brained by a Bludger from the same team, but I’m honestly super fucking happy with this and I might expand the series a little more but fuck I need a break.
> 
> Come yell at me on tumblr @sunset-swerved if you wanna talk about this universe with meeee


End file.
